Azzy back home after going AWOL over deer

 

By John Howell
A brief, special called meeting of Batesville city officials Thursday morning overshadowed their three-hour Tuesday meeting with the good news that Azzy had been found.
Azzy is the trained Batesville Police Department German Shepherd who bolted after a deer Tuesday night when K-9 officer Greg Jones stopped to allow her out of his vehicle for a routine leg-stretching and bathroom break near the Batesville Civic Center.
Just as she jumped to the ground, the deer sprinted past, and Azzy took off “like a bolt of greased lightning,” BPD  Administrative Assistant Nita Taylor said.
Azzy’s disappearance set of a frantic search by Jones and other BPD officers as well as Facebook postings with her photo.
About 2 a.m. Thursday a Courtland man returning from work in Oxford stopped by Walmart and spotted Azzy, still wearing the police vest he had seen her wearing in the Facebook photo.
“He called her, and she came up to him,” Batesville Police Chief Jimmy McCloud told the mayor and aldermen Thursday morning.
The meeting had been called at McCloud’s request to ask aldermen to authorize a reward for Azzy’s safe return. Instead, he asked the board to commend George Dickson, the Courtland man who recognized her at Walmart.
“Let him know we appreciate him coming forward,” McCloud said.
Assistant City Attorney Colmon Mitchell said that “the statute lets you offer a reward — that’s the way it’s worded,” but authorizing an amount to be paid after recovery amounts to a donation to a private party, which is prohibited.
Instead, the three aldermen who attended the short-notice meeting — Bill Dugger and Teddy Morrow in addition to Harrison ­— agreed to make personal expressions of gratitude, with Harrison providing “dinner for two” at his restaurant.
“Do it for four and I’ll chip in,” Morrow said.
McCloud said that Azzy has since been fitted with a tracking collar on loan from Panola County EMS Director Daniel Cole while BPD researches the type of tracking device best suited for Azzy.
He said that she was equipped with an identification chip, but that would only reveal her owner if she was taken for veterinary care. The city has about $8,000 invested in Azzy, according to McCloud.
“Wednesday was a sad day,” McCloud said, at the police department, especially for Jones. “He was broken,” the chief said. After 27 hours of non-stop searching, “I said, Greg, you’ve go to go home and rest.”
Azzy is “doing fine,” McCloud said.
Jones is recovering.